1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an equipment arrangement and a method for generating electrical power from a flowing medium, for example water. The arrangement has a number of turbine generator units of which at least some are arranged one above another and/or beside one another. These units are connected to one another to form one or more modules. The invention also relates to an installation for producing electrical power and a method of rebuilding such an installation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Equipment of the type mentioned above emerges, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,804,855 and 4,755,690 (Obermeyer). These documents describe equipment having a large number of turbine generator units arranged one above another and beside one another and connected to form modules. They are arranged on a dam between two piers and can be raised and lowered by means of a crane. The turbine generator units are constructed in the form of so-called tube generators, in which a pear-shaped tube is provided to accommodate the generator, at whose tapering end a turbine is arranged which is connected firmly to the generator so as to rotate with it via a horizontal shaft, which is mounted in the tube. At its front, tapering end, the tube is supported by guide plates on an inlet tube surrounding the generator and the turbine.
As compared with large tubular generators in conventional power stations, the arrangement of a plurality of comparatively substantially smaller turbine generator units beside one another and one above another has the advantage of a considerably shorter structural length and, associated with this, lower investment in the infrastructure sector. They are also flexible operation. In the case of a large number of turbine generator units, there is the risk that high stresses will occur on a module as a result of the superimposition of oscillations and/or vibrations of individual units. Furthermore, in the case of a large number of turbine generator units, a comparatively high weight of the module is to be expected, which results in an appropriately strengthened crane and a corresponding infrastructure.